Your Wedding Ceremony is the most important and meaningful piece of the

promises that you make to one another.

It ought to reflect your love, dreams and individuality.

Together, we create your unique ceremony.

A beautiful remembrance for all time.

“From every human being there rises a light that reaches straight to heaven. And when two souls that are destined to be together find each other, a single brighter light goes from their united being.” - Baal Shem Tov

It would be my privilege to work with you on creating a warm, unique and inclusive ceremony that reflects your values and love.

I officiate at Jewish, Interfaith, and Same Sex Marriages as well as Baby Namings, Pet Memorials, and special Anniversary Celebrations.

Each couple is unique. As we get to know one another, we together create a ceremony that is reflective of you, your vision and your beliefs. Each and every ceremony is a bit different but all are warm and inclusive.

When appropriate, I am happy to co-officiate with clergy of other faiths.

It is my pleasure to serve Washington, DC, Maryland, Virginia, West Virginia and areas of PA and Southern NJ.

Again, it would be my privilege to guide you as you begin the exciting journey towards your wedding.

I am happy to perform wedding services for:

Jewish couples

Interfaith couples

Same-sex couples

I happily co-officiate with clergy of other faiths in a neutral venue.

I look forward to hearing from you! I may be reached at 804-335-4041 or through Jewishheartandsoul.com.

We had a great experience with Rabbi Annie. Even though we were in different cities, she made a real effort to get to know us through several Skype sessions in the months leading up to the wedding. She listened and worked with us to help us create the ceremony that we wanted, and was extremely flexible in meeting our needs. The ceremony she produced was personal and meaningful to us, and we couldn't have been more pleased. Afterwards we received numerous words of praise from our guests. We would highly recommend working with her.

Working with Rabbi Annie was both fun and easy. As soon as I spoke to her on the phone for the first time, I knew she was the one to marry me and my husband! As she is located in MD and us in Philadelphia, we often used Skype and Facetime to connect on a monthly basis in order to get to know each other. My husband ins't religious, and I consider myself to be, so she help us tailor the ceremony that fit us perfectly, of which we had complete say in. She is a great listener, and delivered an extremely heartfelt ceremony at our wedding. We received so many compliments on how beautiful the ceremony was, and now even a few of our family members will be using her for their upcoming weddings! I would 100% recommend her to anyone!! <3 Thank you for everything Rabbi Annie!! xox L + R

Where to even start?? Rabbi Annie truly made our day so special! When we first started looking for an officiant, we knew that we wanted to have a ceremony that was personal and inclusive-- and Rabbi Annie delivered! After the ceremony we heard from dozens of guests about just how wonderful and unique the ceremony was. We can't thank Rabbi Annie enough for ensuring that our wedding day was all that we hoped it would be!

My husband and I were very happy we chose Rabbi Annie to officiate our wedding! She did a beautiful job. We are both jewish but we're not affiliated with a particular synagogue or Rabbi. It was still really important to us to have a Jewish ceremony and Rabbi Annie made that happen. From the moment we met her I knew Rabbi Annie was the perfect fit for us. She is extremely warm, caring, and truly takes the time to get to know her couples. We met with her in person twice and then had multiple skype sessions. We had about 3-4 sessions of marriage counseling and then the remainder of the sessions were for us to plan our ceremony. She made sure that it incorporated everything we wanted and had many readings and vow options for us to choose from. We actually didn't realize she was also a Cantor so when she started chanting during the wedding we were surprised, but it was so beautiful! So many people complimented us on how nice our ceremony was and how much they loved our Rabbi (and we agree!!). I would highly recommend Rabbi Annie to other couples! She was everything we could've hoped for and more!

Rabbi Annie was an incredible pleasure to work with and it was a joy getting to know her. She is professional, receptive, and she made our ceremony feel special and personal. We had an interfaith ceremony and Rabbi Annie closely worked with us to incorporate the traditions from each side we wanted to observe. She even made premarital counseling something to look forward to! We feel like we lucked out finding Rabbi Annie and could not recommend her more!

Rabbi Annie was absolutely amazing, not just as our officiant for the wedding ceremony but for the entire journey leading up to it. She guided us perfectly with each session throughout the planning process, always with the utmost level of professionalism, grace, warmth, and enthusiasm. We wouldn't have done this with anyone else!

Dear Annie,
There aren't enough accolades to adequately describe the heartfelt, intimate and personal wedding and ketubah signing ceremonies you lovingly created and delivered for us and our family and guests.
We don't have to tell you about the overwhelming emotion because you saw it all looking at us and all our guests and participants. And we saw your emotions in your eyes and heard it in the subtle trembling of your voice as you spoke to us the words that will remain in our hearts forever. We spend a good amount of time with nearly all our guests and they universally praised you (we heard dozens of times "your rabbi is amazing!"), confirming what we already knew but it was delightful to hear their perspective. We also loved your graceful and funny recovery after accidentally dropping the microphone. There's a reason some of the greatest comedians are Jewish :)
We also heard from many guests about the butterfly that flew across the front row during your personal words to us, while you were telling the s tory of Andrew's stomach butterflies during our early dates. Thanks for the good word you must have put in with God who apparently coordinated with our late parents and grandparents to make it happen, along with the miraculously delightful weather for early August in the Washington area. We'd like to think that's what happened and not just coincidence!
Every aspect of our wedding was perfect and we will be forever grateful to you for treating us not as clients, but with love. From the first time we met you through each of our in-person visits and then culminating in our breathtakingly beautiful ceremony we enjoyed every minute with you.
We were told by many guests that our wedding was one of the best they had ever attended. You certainly get a lot of the credit.
Fondly,
Andrew & Jimmy

My husband and I loved Rabbi Annie! We wanted a reform Jewish, interfaith wedding on Saturday before sun down, and she had no problem with that. We had just moved to Bethesda, so did not have an officiant from a congregation that we could look to. We wanted a strong, socially-liberal officiant to match our values. Rabbi Annie meets at least 4 times with each couple to do marriage counseling, get to know us, and thoroughly plan the ceremony. We met 5 times, and she was great about scheduling in the evenings to accommodate our busy schedules. She is funny, warm, opinionated, and puts her whole heart into her work. Her chanting was beautiful and the parts of the ceremony that she wrote specifically for my groom and I were very personal and clearly the product of careful listening and getting to know us as a couple. We got many, many comments back from guests that our officiant was a perfect fit, funny, and chose incredibly meaningful words for us. Her ceremony was perfect and the highlight of our wedding! If you compare to an officiant from a congregation, she is somewhat pricey, so we had some initial sticker shock, but we felt that her effort and personalization were well worth the cost in the end--especially considering all the time she spent meeting with us. We're thrilled with our choice and would absolutely recommend her!

Jewish Heart and Soul—Rabbi-Cantor Annie Bornstein responded with the following comments:

I am delighted that you were pleased with our work together and with my contribution to your journey and wedding day.
Most people are unaware of the many hours involved in preparing for and creating a personalized wedding ceremony. There are the premarital sessions which require psychological expertise and preparation in order to benefit the bride & groom. Meetings with couples, some more demanding than others, ought to enlighten the couple and build a relationship between the officiant and the bride & groom. The nature of the investment of your officiant in YOUR wedding must be considered as well. The time required and cost for traveling to and from the venue counts. The expertise and quality of your officiant is the bottom line. If you want a meaningful, unique and elegant ceremony, you may pay a little more. Anyone can hold a rabbi's manual and, with the proper credentials, marry you. I suggest that one can find an officiant at almost any price point. The decision of whether to make your ceremony truly meaningful with someone who will walk beside you throughout your process can only be made by the bride & groom. Congratulations once again ;-)

Thank you Rabbi Annie for helping to make our wedding so memorable! We consider you a new friend.
Everyone who reads this should know that Rabbi Annie is fun and easy to work with. She made sure that our questions were answered and she had many good suggestions to make our day unique. Rabbi Annie guided us in the selection of a Ketubah that will become a beautiful work of art in our home for years to come. She sent us suggested readings that brought us to tears. Thank you Rabbi Annie for adding so many beautiful memories to our day!
Carole & Neal

Rabbi Annie was fantastic. From the first time we met she was totally engaged. The meeting lasted over an hour where we shared our lives, interests and love for each other. Rabbi Annie continued to take notes and was really interested in our story. She was engaged at every step, not overbearing, but truly wanting this to our best day ever. I have a continued sense of humor and she jumped right in which made the whole experience perfect. It fit our personality and joy for life.
The ceremony was outside on July 2 and was hotter than ####. Yes, we had beads of sweat dripping, yes, we were drinking water and YES, Rabbi Annie was terrific and didn't miss a beat. She expressed what she had learned about us, making so personal, we thought we knew for years. It was true, comfortable, and joyful as she played back what our feelings were. She knew me and there was a sense of personal feedback when, with a smile on her face and joy in her voice, she stated the word "binding" which made me smile because she "got" us.
Rabbi Annie is a person want to get to know after the wedding, when all is said, the vows exchanged, and your living as husband and wife. She brings the true spirit of life. Our thanks to Rabbi Annie, for being the person you are, getting know us and join us in marriage.
Thank you,
Carole and Neal

Rabbi Annie was wonderful throughout the entire process. Her pre-marital counseling was excellent, and she made planning the ceremony - even with our custom elements - very easy. All our guests told us how beautiful the ceremony was. We are so glad we worked with Rabbi Annie!